Tracks with silence

[DVDdoug]

Audacity has Generate ->Silence and if you export as WAV you'll literally get a WAV file full of zeros. (But make sure to turn off dither.)

 

[Jimbob54]

Audacity has Generate ->Silence and if you export as WAV you'll literally get a WAV file full of zeros. (But make sure to turn off dither.)

Much obliged

 

[MRC01]

Or, turn on the dither, and use different kinds. This can also be useful.
For example, some DACs shut off when playing a stream that consists of samples that are all zeros, but dither will keep them on. Some DACs shut off if the dither is below a dB threshold, but will stay on with noise shaped dither (which has higher overall noise, but in frequencies we are less sensitive to).

 

[Jimbob54]

I can prepare you a file of silence if you wish

• what sample rate?
• with baseline dither or true digital silence?
• mono/stereo?
• duration?

If appropriate, you could burn the file onto an audio CD

That would be great- 16/44 and 30 secs would be fine- as to the rest, whatever you think best (you can tell I dont really get the dithering point) but I can easily download if you upload it somewhere and PM me a link- I just want to check I only get the scuffling noise inbetween tracks , not under the music too (I think its the former and indeed today I dont hear it at all so may be an EMI thing when my desk is busy with switched on work equipment)

 

[MCH]

there are several albums with hidden tracks after a few seconds (or minutes!) of silence. From the top of my head i remember a coupke of CDs by Beck, but it is pretty common.

Many on this wikipedia list are like that. plenty to choose from, i am sure some will fit your needs:

List of albums containing a hidden track: B - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MCH]

Ah!! Good going @Vini darko that reminded me. Second Coming by Stone Roses CD has something like 77 tracks with no sound (and it's a CD it should be quiet if nothing has been recorded) before they come back with a 90th track. I guess it was a way to hide it, to reward the persisting ones... I don't know. Anyway, after the 12th track you have 77 silent ones and then the number 90 is "The Foz".

True! Had forgotten that one!

 

[restorer-john]

Many decades ago, I discovered that the Galactic Cowboys had 3 hidden tracks on their Space In Your Face CD, but you had to do a weird back/forward selection after the last non-hidden song was done playing. I stumbled on it accidentally when fumble fucking around trying select a track. The songs played forward, but the CD clock counted down on the hidden tracks.

It was pretty cool shit for a high 20-something to find.

Hidden tracks are cool. Remember Maxwell (the artist)? Every one of his CDs has hidden tracks. Some before track 1, some after and others hidden from the TOC.

Very cool.

 

[restorer-john]

Using REW, you can easily generate silence tracks, at any sampling rate, also controlling whether they are dithered or just pure zeros. You can also generate tracks with test tones of any frequencie(s), attenuated to any level you want, even below the bit depth which you can still hear when dithered (for example, a 1 kHz sin at -112 dB dithered at 16-bit resolution).
I've found this useful in my own casual testing and measuring of various equipment.
PS: as for recorded tracks, here are some that I created with REW.

Very cool for sure, but the dithered vs undithered (boosted) have a completely different noise spectral profile when listening. How can you explain that? One noise/hiss sounds "white" the other sounds well and truly "pink".

What is going on there?

 

[MRC01]

Could be any of several factors at play, depending on what you're listening to.
With the undithered, there is no digital signal (all zeros), so whatever noise you hear comes from the equipment, which could have any spectrum.
With the dithered, it depends on the type of dither. Some are equal spectrum, so it sounds like white noise. Some are noise shaped, which has an uneven frequency spectrum.
It also depends on whether the low level tone is played with the dither. When it is, there seems to be a perceptual effect that when the tone is playing, it changes how we perceive the dither/noise/hiss behind the tone.
It also depends on the level you play it back. The frequency response of our hearing changes with level, so it sounds different.

 

[MRC01]

That would be great- 16/44 and 30 secs would be fine- as to the rest, whatever you think best ...

Do you know whether your DAC auto-mutes when the digital signal is all zeros? If not, I'd suggest getting different tones to test whether it does.

 

[Jimbob54]

Do you know whether your DAC auto-mutes when the digital signal is all zeros? If not, I'd suggest getting different tones to test whether it does.

No I dont. I know there is both mute and standby on the E1DA dongles via the companion app- both are enabled for me but not what triggers them. This may not be valid from an electrical standpoint, but my guess is any EMI filters etc in the DAC arent operational in the second or so my player app takes to move to the next track on my streaming shuffle- so sometimes (as was the case yesterday) with loads of stuff powered on near me, I was hearing the rubbish from the environment through the cable/ dac.

 

[MRC01]

I've heard some DACs that automute when the signal is all zero, or goes below a threshold near all zero (so dither won't keep it on). Some do this silently, others have a small audible click or similar noise when the mute triggers on and back off. Some have a time delay, so you only hear this when the silence between tracks is long enough. If this happens, it may be the noise you are hearing.

 

[Jimbob54]

I've heard some DACs that automute when the signal is all zero, or goes below a threshold near all zero (so dither won't keep it on). Some do this silently, others have a small audible click or similar noise when the mute triggers on and back off. Some have a time delay, so you only hear this when the silence between tracks is long enough. If this happens, it may be the noise you are hearing.

There is a separate noise when it goes to standby , its like a heartbeat. Not sure about mute- I might try disabling that feature and see . But today I couldnt get the scuffling noises with the same set up as when I first posted- so who knows!

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I made a short track of silence and use it as a ringtone on my cell phone. I get a lot of spam calls and anybody who isn't in my address book makes the silence file play, and I'm not bothered.

 

[Jimbob54]

I made a short track of silence and use it as a ringtone on my cell phone. I get a lot of spam calls and anybody who isn't in my address book makes the silence file play, and I'm not bothered.

Crafty!

 

[Jimbob54]

Some interesting results and thanks to all that have posted suggestions. Should be noted I havent heard the scuffling noises between tracks since I first posted , so thats good

@Pluto kindly made me some short silence files- a pure silence, a dithered silence and a low level modulated tone.

The dongle in question is the E1DA S G3 Susumu paired with Moondrop Blessing Dusks- pretty sensitive but not ridiculous.

I usually cap the dac at -20dB . Maxing up to this I heard nothing in any of the 3 files. Raising the max level to -5dB I could hear hiss/ noise floor on both the modulated tone and the dithered silence but not the pure silence. In no situation did I hear the original scuffling noises.

I suspect pure silence causes the dongle to mute and in the other 2 I'm hearing the noise floor at -5dB.

Now to figure out what the original scuffling noise was, but I suspect EMI.

 

[Dogan]

Anyone know of any recorded tracks that are actual silence (as opposed to recorded "silence" like John Cage 4.33 which has actual background noise)?

Noticed a scuffling noise on my portable IEM set up between tracks which I think is "noise" between the phone and the dongle which I think stops when the next track kicks in but I would like to check its not just being masked by the music. If I pause mid track I dont hear the scuffling noise, only when there is gaps between tracks stopping and new one starting.

Theory is , if I have a track of silence playing, turn the dongle up fully and hear nothing, all is good.

Ideally on Tidal but a link to a file or webpage would be great

Thanks

There is a 4 minutes silence in this song around 5:25. Then it resumes with a very nice guitar solo.

 

[MRC01]

... I get a lot of spam calls and anybody who isn't in my address book makes the silence file play, and I'm not bothered.

There are things much more fun than silence to give spammers:

Custom Answer Bots: The revenge on telemarketers you’ve been waiting for

“I don’t mind getting spam or telemarketing calls," said no one, ever.

www.robokiller.com

 

[MediumRare]

The most famous one, IMO: The Beatles, Abbey Road, The End, has 16 seconds of silence.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

There are things much more fun than silence to give spammers:

Custom Answer Bots: The revenge on telemarketers you’ve been waiting for

“I don’t mind getting spam or telemarketing calls," said no one, ever.

www.robokiller.com

That's is a great track. I've found though that if I keep the default Google greeting, the spammers/bots hang up immediately because they're probably trained to recognize that as a dead-end. I just don't deal with them because they're slime and should be treated as such.